After Tommy's disappearance, Dick returned to living in isolation, keeping to his room as much as possible, even skipping meals if the opportunity to do so availed itself.

It hurt.

It hurt a lot.

He had thought that he could trust Tommy, had let the other male bring down the walls that he had been building around himself after his parents' horrific death. It had just felt so incredibly nice to have someone, to have a friend that he could talk to and spend time with and who did not get angry when he got overwhelmed and cried.

But perhaps what hurt most of all was the fact that Tommy had promised to take Dick with him.

He had pinky promised.

And to Dick, a nine-year-old child, this was the ultimate betrayal.

As he lay curled up on his mattress, eyes watery but tears unable to fall, Dick made a vow to himself. There would be no more trusting easily. There would be no more friends. It would just be himself against the world.

Trusting people just led to pain.

~•One Year Later•~

"Grayson! Did you hide all of the toilet paper again?"

Dick smirked, not moving from where he was curled up on the couch. "I admit to nothing!" He shouted back, fighting down a mischievous cackle. It was just too easy to pull things over on the boys here.

Not like they could risk doing anything back.

The last time someone had tried to return his pranking it had not ended well.

His smirk grew, remembering just how funny it had been when his challenger had woken up strapped to the ceiling with duck tape. The idiot should have known better than to attempt the water-bucket-over-the-door trick.

Although it had been funny to watch everyone panicking while taking him down, and it was even more funny when they had messed up and the kid and fallen down headfirst.

Dick shifted into a more comfortable position on the couch as one of the older house boys came storming into the living room face red from anger.

"You don't looked whelmed at all, Henry... maybe you should take a few deep breaths," he cautioned, mirth twinkling in his gaze.

"Don't you dare use your stupid made up words. You know what you did. I've had enough of you thinking you can get away with everything, brat. Just wait until I beat your face in." Henry was fuming, taking rapid steps toward the smaller boy, fist raised in anger.

Dick simply laughed, rolling his eyes as he stood. "Really, Henry? All this because you were too dumb to check before going? It's a simple life lesson, really. You should thank me."

"I'm not going to thank you, you slimy little rat!"

Henry lunged at him, fist already swinging.

Dick sighed, shaking his head. "Newbies..." He chided, easily sidestepping the blow and watching in amusement as Henry stumbled and fell onto the couch. "I know you've only been here for a month or so, but really... you should know better by now. I do what I want when I want, and people like you? Well, you can't stop me."

He stepped back, blue eyes calculating as he watched the older boy turn to face him again, clearly still very angry. "I'd recommend stopping now... before I do some real damage. As it is, I'd already suggest watching your back. I don't like intrusions into my privacy."

"You're crazy." Henry hissed, standing once more and stepping toward Dick. "You're what, eight? Nine? You're a midget. What are you gonna do, huh? Call up some of your circus freak friends?"

Eyes narrowed and fists raised, the older boy did make quite the fearsome figure, or at least he would if he was facing off against anyone else. Unfortunately for him, he was not facing off against anyone else.

Dick grinned, the smile actually looking genuine enough to make Henry take a step back, confusion spreading across his features. And then Dick attacked, moving too quickly for the other boy to process as he delivered a rather solid roundhouse kick to the side of his head.

As Henry fell to the ground, Dick's smirk returned, and he brushed imaginary dirt from his clothes. "I'm ten, actually..."

~•~

"Richard? I need to speak with you."

Dick frowned, looking up from the book that he was reading. Nyssa generally never came to speak with any of them. While she certainly was not a good house parent, she also had yet to do anything extremely terrible.

Generally, she was just absent and uncaring, spending most of her time in her room or just simply not being there at all.

While Dick was sure that this had to be some kind of a violation, he did not mind. It was nice to not have an adult around telling them off all the time.

With that in mind, he honestly had no idea as to why the lady wanted to speak with him now. "What do you want?" He asked, not even attempting to hide the suspicion in his tone.

Nyssa rolled her eyes, all too aware of how aggressive and surly the boy had become. Her father had better seriously reward her for taking this mission. "We have a visitor and they want to speak to you. Heaven knows why."

Visitors only meant one thing: another sappy couple looking to rescue some poor orphan kid.

Yeah, no thanks.

"Don't wanna. Get them to look at one of the others," he huffed, picking up his book again and trying to find where he was before the interruption.

Unfortunately, Nyssa did not seem interested in leaving him in peace.

The woman marched over and snatched the book from his hands, dropping it to the floor with a thump as she took the boy's shoulder and forcibly maneuvered him off the couch.

"I don't think so. You will speak to the visitor. And you will be polite," she hissed, pressing him forward by his shoulder, the grip painfully tight.

Dick glared.

"Fine, fine. You can let go. I'll talk to them," he grumbled, trying to shrug out of her hold.

His struggles were futile, only leading to the grip on his shoulder tightening as she guided him out of the living room and toward her office, one of the few rooms in the house where the children were not allowed to wander freely.

Nyssa pulled the door open and shoved him in, closing it behind him.

The room was surprisingly dark, the only light shining from a lamp on the large desk in the center of the room.

Dick rubbed at his shoulder, glancing back at the now closed door. Weird. Normally Nyssa attended the meetings about possible adoption.

"Richard Grayson."

He jumped, whirling back around toward the sound of the voice, watching in trepidation as a rather tall man stepped out from the shadows.

Not creepy at all.

"Who are you? Are you trying to be creepy?" Dick asked, crossing his arms over his chest and doing his best to look unafraid.

The man simply chuckled, taking a seat and gesturing for Dick to do the same. Hesitantly, Dick moved to sit in the chair, eyes narrowing as he watched the man. "Are you going to talk, or are you just going to sit there and be weird?"

"You have attitude, I see... not bad. You'll need that." The man spoke, the corners of his lips twitching upward into the faintest of smiles. "My name is Slade Wilson. I am here to help you."

Dick eyed him with even more suspicion. He was smart enough to know not to just trust random strangers. "Help me? How? I'm doing just fine without your help."

"Oh really? And do you know who killed your parents?"

"My... my parents? What do you know about my parents?" Dick leaned forward, heart clenching in his chest. "They said it was an accident... they said... they said the ropes just snapped."

Slade laughed darkly, shaking his head. "No. They were cut." He watched as realization flicked through the boy's eyes. Of course, he had made sure that Dick had seen something the night of his parents' deaths. All he had to do was reawaken that memory. "You saw the one who did it, didn't you?"

Dick took in a shaky breath, fighting back the tears that threatened to overwhelm him every time he thought of that night. But the man was right. He had seen someone. "There was a man dressed in black with a cape and a mask. Like... like a bat. My parents told me it was fine, but... but it was him, wasn't it? He killed my parents?"

"Yes. That's right. Now tell me boy, what do you know of the one they call Batman?"